Authors: Katherine Garbera
JARED WATCHED the women leave, unsure what to say to Dave now that they were alone. Despite their conversation a few weeks ago, Dave still didn’t seem too welcoming. Aside from her parents, Jared thought Dave was the most important one to gain approval from.
“Nice run out there today,” Jared said.
“Thanks. I like this track, even though I’m usually faster on the shorter tracks.”
“I noticed. I don’t envy guys like you and Tucker who drive like that every week.”
“I think it’s either in your blood or not. Most people don’t understand the rush. You know, the drive to get out there.”
Jared did know because Tucker had tried to explain it to him a time or two. “You sound like Tucker.”
Dave’s features tightened. And Jared had the feeling that Dave was never going to be able to let go of his rivalry with Tucker.
“I guess I must. After all, Tucker’s a driver like I am. How long have you known him?”
“Since college.”
“You two are tight?”
“He’s like a brother to me,” Jared said.
“Then I’m going to have to be especially gracious when I beat him in the points so you and Annie won’t have any problems.”
He had to smile at the cocky way Dave talked. They chatted about the upcoming race and then the conversation lagged.
“Thanks for coming to the party tonight. I don’t know if Tucker would have done it.”
“Well, he’s not known for being a gentleman like I am,” Dave said wryly.
“Are you really that nice all the time?” Jared asked.
“That’s a deep, dark family secret and I’m not sure you qualify yet.”
The door slammed shut once again. “Why not?”
“Annie’s still not sure about your relationship,” Dave said.
A part of Jared knew the other man was right. “She doesn’t want to rush things.”
“Like she did with Malcolm. Man, that guy was some piece of work.”
“Did you like him?” Jared asked.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“He never wanted to do anything with our family,” Dave said. “He drove a wedge between Annie and the rest of us. I don’t think she’d be happy with a man who did that again.”
Jared felt the warning go through him. How hard was he willing to try to make the Jenners like him? If he failed would Annie walk away from him?
“Thanks for the warning.”
“No problem. I like you, Jared. That’s the reason why I’m telling you this.”
He wasn’t too sure about Dave liking him. But he believed Dave loved his sister and was looking out for her. That made him want to listen to whatever advice the other man had to offer. “Anything else?”
“Nah.”
Dave saw a buddy of his and moved on to talk to him. Jared watched the Jenner family, wondering at the dynamic that kept them so close. Was he doing the wrong thing by trying to fit into Annie’s family?
“Want to dance?” Annie asked, coming up behind him.
“Yes. I’d love that.”
He led her out onto the dance floor. The band leader looked over at them as Jared pulled Annie into his arms. The song they were playing ended.
“This next song is for Jared.”
Jared glanced at Annie as the band started to play “Come Away With Me.” He drew her closer. It had been an eternity since he’d last held her in his arms.
He couldn’t resist kissing her. Her mouth opened under his and he told himself to take it slow, but slow wasn’t part of the program with this woman. She was pure feminine temptation and he had her in his arms. He slid his hands down her back, wishing they were alone.
Her fingers drifted over his shoulders and then slid down his back. He growled deep in his throat when she leaned forward against him.
She took control of the kiss, then she pulled back, resting her head on his shoulder as he danced her around the floor. The worry that he’d felt at Dave’s words increased as he realized that he had no real idea how to keep her.
He’d hoped somehow that gifts would be an asset to wooing her, but they weren’t. She liked them, but she was just as happy when he didn’t give her jewelry. He’d hoped that maybe winning over her family would be a bonus, but according to Dave that wasn’t going to do it.
He’d hoped that their lovemaking and the closeness that was growing between them would be enough. But now he was very afraid that it wouldn’t be.
And he wasn’t ready for the NASCAR season to end. He wasn’t ready for her to go back to her life and send him back to his. Though he had no indication that she was leaning toward ending their relationship after the race at Homestead.
When the song ended he didn’t let her go. He knew he should be circulating, working the room and making sure that his guests were enjoying themselves. But he needed this time with her for himself.
He held her in his arms as the band played romantic covers of songs made popular by Dean Martin and Ella Fitzgerald, classics that spoke of heartbreak and love.
He tried to push the conversation he’d had with Dave out of his mind but it wouldn’t budge. All he could think was that every time he thought he was getting closer to Annie he was really drifting from her.
When the evening ended he accepted an invitation from the Jenner men to join them in the morning for an early round of golf. Annie didn’t say anything but he hoped that it was the right thing to do. He would integrate himself into her family and maybe that would somehow make her see how much he wanted her.
DAVE WON IN Fort Worth and then they all traveled to Phoenix for the second to last race of the season. Annie was tired of the traveling, but at the same time she’d miss all the moving around they did. And she had no idea what was going to happen between her and Jared after the race in Homestead.
Though they’d decided to revisit living together in Florida at the end of the NASCAR season, he’d said little else about it and had in fact been more reserved since the race in Fort Worth. She’d done everything she could to show him that she was interested in a relationship with him that would last beyond November.
Annie wondered if that was part of the problem. She honestly tried not to filter everything that happened between her and Jared through the lens of what had happened with Malcolm. But it was really hard. Especially when she felt like she was holding on too tightly to Jared. She was too afraid to let loose in case he left her and didn’t come back.
Annie spent a lot of time photographing Dave and his team near Dave’s garage because she didn’t want to unintentionally pass along anything she saw in Tucker’s garage or vice versa. She still couldn’t believe she’d done that.
There was a major gathering of officials around Tucker’s car after the qualifying laps were run and they were inspecting the cars. Annie drifted over that way but couldn’t get close enough to see what was going on.
She saw Donovan Allen come out of Dave’s hauler. “What’s going on over there?”
“I don’t know. The squawk on the radio was just that they’d found something they shouldn’t have.”
“Not with his tires, right? Didn’t they send them off to be analyzed and find nothing wrong with them?”
“Yes. It’s not the tires. Those were fine.”
“Have you seen Jared?”
“No. But I bet he’ll be in over there in that knot of spectators.”
When Jared came out of the garage she’d never seen him look so angry before. She was actually a little afraid to approach him, not knowing what had happened with the officials. But as soon as he noticed her, he walked over to her.
“What happened?” she asked.
“I can’t talk about it out here,” he said, taking her arm and leading her over to one of the conference trailers. He rapped on the door and found it empty. “Let’s go in here.”
She climbed inside the small conference room and took a seat on one of the leather chairs. Jared followed her in, closing the door behind him. He opened the door that led into a second conference area and made sure that it was empty before he turned to her.
There were two televisions mounted on the walls. Two separate network reporters were live and speculating on what was going on with Tucker and his Number 186 car.
“This looks pretty serious. What’s going on?”
“He was running with an illegal carburetor. That’s why he broke the track record.”
Annie was shocked. This was way more serious than just changing tire pressure or possibly treating tires with some kind of substance. “Are you sure? What did Tucker say?”
“He’s denying the entire thing. Billy says that the carburetor they removed isn’t the one he and his team installed before the qualifying laps.”
She didn’t know what to say. She had as many questions as Jared did. A big part of her wanted to find some way to calm him down. But she didn’t understand cheating.
It was something that Malcolm had done, too. Thinking that if he did something unobserved he could just deny it and no one would be wiser.
The Tucker she’d come to know wasn’t the kind of man who’d cheat.
“Well, of course, he’d deny it. And with all the scrutiny that was on his team earlier this year I can’t see Billy or Tucker taking a chance on doing something illegal,” Annie said, wishing now that she’d gone to Tucker’s garage and maybe she could have prevented this. He would never have done anything illegal if she’d been in there with her camera.
Jared rubbed the back of his neck, reaching over to turn off the television sets. “I can’t figure this out.”
“Jared, you sound really ticked off. If Tucker misses a race will it cost you a lot of money?”
“No. Money means nothing to me. I can’t believe this has happened with the car. Even the officials were shocked. This totally compromises Tucker’s run for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Championship.”
“That doesn’t sound like Tucker. He might not have been part of the group who did this,” she said. Tucker valued his friendship with Jared. She knew from the time she’d spent with both men.
“We have absolutely no idea what happened. We’re so close to winning the championship.”
Something about this entire setup didn’t seem right to Annie. She understood wanting to win, but Tucker was fast enough to do it without cheating. And his standing in the points was still good. All he had to do was finish top five this week and next week and he’d win.
“How are they going to punish him? A fine?”
“I don’t know. He’s over in the ‘bad boy’ trailer right now. Billy’s with him.”
The “bad boy” trailer was the one place that no driver wanted to be. It was the trailer where the NASCAR bigwigs took drivers, crew chiefs and really anyone who did anything wrong to “talk” to them. To give them the kind of dressing-down that couldn’t be delivered in public.
“You know Billy’s been around a long time and there’s never been a hint of him doing anything like this before. I can’t imagine that he’d jeopardize his potential winnings from the championship to finish this way.”
“Of course you can’t imagine this kind of thing, Annie. You come from a family with a legacy of integrity and winning.”
He left the trailer before she could respond. But she really had no idea what she’d have said to him because he hadn’t sounded all too happy with her or her family.
TUCKER CAME OUT of the “bad boy” trailer looking every inch the maverick he’d been labeled by NASCAR fans. In fact he looked ready for a fight.
Could someone have sabotaged his car?
“We need to talk,” Tucker said as he stalked by Jared toward his own hauler.
Jared easily caught up with Tucker. “What about?”
“I’ll tell you when we’re alone.”
The garage had been cleared of everyone with cold passes and those with hot passes had been around long enough to stay away from Tucker. His entire team looked ready to rumble. Jared followed Tucker up the stairs and into his hauler.
Billy was already inside, seated at the table near the back going over some kind of paperwork.
“What did you want to talk to me about?” Jared asked when they were all seated.
“I think someone from Dave’s team sabotaged my car.”
“Why? That makes no sense.”
“But it’s supposed to be believable that I’d throw away a chance at the championship?”
“No, that doesn’t makes sense, either. Even the officials can’t believe you’d deliberately do something this stupid,” Jared said.
“I’ve never broken the rules. I’ve pushed and tried to see how far I could get an official to go for certain things but I’d never do something like this,” Billy said.
“What do you mean?” Jared asked. He hadn’t been to see the car yet.
“It was very obvious when we took the car apart it’s like we were trying to get caught. The carburetor is totally illegal, not even close to the one I installed.”
Jared nodded. “Who would do something like this?”
“I already told you.
Dave Jenner
. He wants me totally out of the race.”
Jared had a hard time imagining “Gentleman Dave” sneaking around Tucker’s garage and planting an illegal piece of equipment in his car. It just didn’t seem like the kind of thing that he’d do.
“Was there any mention of one of his guys in your garage? I think the officials would have noticed if someone from his team was messing with your car.”
Tucker stood up. “No. No one saw anything.”
“Well…” Without proof it was going to be hard to prove that anyone did anything to the car.
“Well, what? All that proves is that they were sneaky. And don’t you think it’s a little suspicious that Annie wasn’t in my garage today. Every week she stops by, but not this week. What’s up with that?”
Jared realized where Tucker was going with this. “I don’t think that’s why she stayed away. She hasn’t been around for
several
weeks.”
“There’s no other person,” Tucker said.
“You’ve got to admit it makes no sense. She was seen in every other garage area except ours,” Billy said.
“You asked?”
Billy shrugged. “Yes. Don’t get defensive. That’s odd behavior.”
“Ah, hell. She wasn’t avoiding your garage so that one of Dave’s guys could plant an illegal part in your car.”
“How do you know?” Tucker asked. “Why else would she stay away?”
“Because a few weeks ago she told me something about what Dave’s team was doing to his car. I think she decided to stay out of your garage so she didn’t accidentally pick up some information and give it to Dave.”
Tucker crossed his arms over his chest and leaned forward. “See, this is what I’m talking about. Cheating. The Jenners all feel safe doing whatever they want because they are part of a legacy. Even if I had photos of Dave doing this no one would want to believe it.”
“Annie didn’t cheat. As I just said, she told me something about Dave’s car. And you have your own legacy, Tucker. You are just as much a part of NASCAR as Dave is.”
“Not if Annie and Dave get their way.” Tucker paced around the small room like he was going to explode. Jared had never seen him like this before.
No matter what Tucker believed or what had happened to his car he knew that Annie had nothing to do with it. As much as she loved her family he’d seen the love she had for NASCAR and the family of people who worked here.
“Maybe, Dave, but Annie’s not like that.”
“She is. You’re just too blinded by her to see the truth. She’s not going to accept you into the Jenner fold because they don’t accept outsiders.”
“Brandon Jenner didn’t seem to be treating you like an outsider at the party the other night.”
“That’s just another reason for Dave to do this. He doesn’t like me.”
“You sound paranoid,” Billy stated.
“See?” Jared said.
“Both of you,” Billy said. “We need to stop arguing and figure this out.”
“I have figured it out. Your girlfriend and her family have set me up,” Tucker said, getting up in Jared’s face.
Jared pushed Tucker away from him. “I don’t appreciate your accusations.”
Billy went back to studying the papers in front of him as Tucker continued. “I don’t care what you appreciate. What kind of team owner spends more time with his driver’s number-one rival than his own driver?”
“That’s crap and you know it. I’ve been very careful to make sure that I don’t do too much with Dave or any of the Jenners.”
Tucker shook his head. “Hell, I know you have. I’m just mad and looking for someone to take it out on.”
“I can understand that. If you’re positive that you didn’t put that carburetor in, then how can we find the real culprit?”
“I don’t know. We’d need someone who had access to all the areas and all the teams.”
“Annie does. I’ll ask her if she saw anything,” Jared said.
Tucker shook his head. “Listen, I know you think she’s trustworthy and maybe she is when it comes to your relationship with her. But I don’t think she’s loyal to me. If she did uncover something that pointed to Dave or one of the other drivers who drives for her father, I’m not sure she’d tell us.”
Jared didn’t agree but knew there was no way he was going to change Tucker’s mind. But as he left the hauler he saw Annie in a knot of Dave’s men, chatting and talking. And he wondered if Tucker wasn’t right about loyalty.